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Archive for ‘irish aid’

July 14th, 2015

Very worth ambitions from Irish Aid are articulated in its recent Humanitarian Assistance infographic below, with admirable goals: to save and protect lives, alleviate suffering and maintain human dignity before, during and in the aftermath of humanitarian crises.

However we Irish apparently don’t think we’re doing enough. A recent Eurobarometer survey, featuring face-to-face interviews with over 28,000 people across Europe, including 1,037 here in Ireland, found 68% of us think developed countries should allocate more money to overseas aid. Moreover we’re found to be the third most likely in the EU to view helping people in developing countries as “very important”. (Though it’s perhaps hard to reconcile this with the situation so many immigrants caught up in our Direct Provision services find themselves trapped in - some for several years - where we seem to be less sympathetic to the poor than we could be. Do onto others…)

So it’s great to see the all positive work that has been done, but our good words, ambitions and aspirations need to be backed up with even more resources and solid commitments. Govt. policy is to help, our people want us to help: let’s do it.